Amherst College - Commencement Exerciseshttps://www.amherst.edu/taxonomy/term/2842
enAmherst President Martin to Class of 2014: “Celebrate What You Have Achieved and Ramify”https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2014/05-2014/node/548039
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">May 25, 2014</p>
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The members of Amherst’s Class of 2014 toss their <br>caps after receiving their degrees</p>
<p>AMHERST, Mass. — Quoting two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Amherst College alumnus Richard Wilbur, Amherst President Biddy Martin today urged the members of the Class of 2014 to celebrate their many impressive achievements and “ramify”—branch out, extend or become more complex.</p>
<p>Martin’s address was preceded by an often humorous talk by Katherine E. (“Kate”) Sisk, of Sudbury, Mass., who was chosen by her classmates to deliver the traditional student speech during the college’s <a href="/news/specialevents/commencement">193<sup>nd</sup> Commencement</a> this morning.</p>
<p>Sun, 70-degree temperatures and a slight breeze made the outdoor event pleasant for an estimated 5,000 families and friends, who gathered to see the 474 students receive their bachelor’s degrees. Commencement included the awarding of honorary doctorates to seven distinguished guests, and capped a weekend of activities that included lectures, concerts and other festivities. (Audio of talks given by the honorees and photos from the weekend can be found on the college’s <a href="/news/specialevents/commencement">Commencement website</a>.)</p>
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<p class="fine-print" style="text-align:center;">Amherst President Biddy Martin poses with a student <br>for a “selfie” during the ceremonies</p>
<p>Martin began her address by inviting Wilbur, a member of Amherst’s Class of 1942 and the John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer at the college, to read his 1974 poem “Seed Leaves.” The homage to late Amherst faculty member and fellow poet Robert Frost ends with the line, “And now the plant, resigned/To being self-defined/Before it can commerce/With the great universe,/Takes aim at all the sky/And starts to ramify.” Martin noted Wilbur’s nonstandard use of the word “ramify,” here meaning “the process of branching out, extending, becoming more complex, taking shape as we take aim.”</p>
<p>“The purpose of your education at a place like Amherst,” she told the graduates, “is not to determine the shape you will take …. but to provide an environment in which you can ramify.”</p>
<p>Martin went on to describe the members of the Class of 2014, by the numbers. They came from 372 different high schools, she said, and transferred from 18 different colleges. They wrote more than 180 senior theses and won numerous high-profile awards. Seventy-seven percent of them took a language class at Amherst and 41 percent took a course in poetry. She discussed their activities, their successes on the playing fields and in the classrooms, and their future plans.</p>
<p>“Despite all the emphasis these days on measurable outcomes and returns on investment, neither we nor you, and not even [honorary degree recipient] Nate Silver, can fully measure the impact that your educational experience has already had or will ultimately have,” she said. “The benefits of education …. take time to make themselves felt, to <em>ramify</em>, which is a compounding process …. Learning, giving and deepening take cultivation and time, and then, in their own timing, they ramify.”</p>
<p>Martin also touched on the hardships many seniors faced as individuals or as members of groups during their college careers. “You sometimes may have felt that you were running a gauntlet; you may feel your faith has been tested at times while you were here,” she said. “I hope that some of the ways in which you were all tested will ultimately ramify in ways that serve us well.”</p>
<p>In wrapping up her address, Martin encouraged the students to “take your decency, your earnestness, your gratitude and your hard work out into a world in urgent need of all those qualities, a world in which it is too easy to be cynical, to express outrage and rip things apart from the safe and cowardly confines of anonymous blog posts or comments sections …. I hope you will cultivate a capacious-enough intellect and a generous-enough heart to want to understand, rather than merely to unmask others.”</p>
<p>“Your education is here is a well-earned treasure,” she said, closing with another reference to Wilbur’s poem. “Celebrate what you have achieved and ramify.”</p>
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<p class="fine-print" style="text-align:center;">Katherine E. (“Kate”) Sisk exits the stage after giving <br>the student address</p>
<p>Prior to Martin’s remarks, the graduates heard from Sisk, who talked about her personal growth during her college years in an address that drew laughter and applause.</p>
<p>“There are so many intensely different and scattered moments and emotions that complicate this process of looking back,” she said. “The moments that make me feel happiest and proudest and most thankful for the opportunities I’ve been offered—those are by far the most powerful and resonant memories in my mind, and the dearest to my heart.”</p>
<p>She spoke about the community of smart, passionate and caring people she joined, and what that community has given her.</p>
<p>“My mom used to say, ‘Love the game and it will love you back,’ and, despite heartbreak and bad luck, it’s been largely true for me so far,” Sisk said. “I’m encouraged enough by the example you have set that the right amount of passion and compassion can make our lives great—and that even if it doesn’t, at the very least it will make them better. That even if we fall short or sideways of what we were aiming for, we’ll be okay, and we might be happy, and we won’t let our fires die.”</p>
<p>Sisk ended: “While we’re at it, do shoot for your dreams, because—<em>why freakin’ not?</em> If I believe in anyone, it’s you and me.”</p>
<p>In addition to the awarding of bachelor of arts degrees to the assembled graduates, honorary doctorates were presented to seven special guests: Political and cultural commentator David Brooks, Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Cullen Jones, tech entrepreneur Thai-Hi Lee ’80, statistician and writer Nate Silver, contemporary artist Sarah Sze, the late American studies scholar and transportation expert Yasuo Sakakibara (accepted posthumously by his daughter, Richi Sakakibara ’88) and former Amherst Board of Trustees chair and businessman Jide Zeitlin ’85.</p>
<p>Other honorees included Douglas C. Grissom ’89, who was awarded the <a href="/news/news_releases/2014/05-2014/node/547630">2014 Medal for Eminent Service</a> for exceptional and distinguished service to the college for a great period of time. Teachers Allyson Eaton, an English teacher at R.L. Paschal High School in Forth Worth, Texas; Erick Hueck, a chemistry teacher at Miami Senior High School in Miami; and Donald Pietroski, a mathematics teacher at Oceanside High School in Rockland, Maine, were honored with Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Awards after being nominated by graduating seniors whom they had taught in high school. Carolyn Pruyne W ’56 served as the honorary marshal for the ceremonies.</p>
<p>The Obed Finch Slingerland Memorial Prize, given by the trustees of the college to members of the senior class who have shown by their own determination and accomplishment the greatest appreciation of and desire for a college education, was awarded to Raysa Gabriela Cabrejo La Torre of Miami.</p>
<p>The Woods-Travis Prize, an annual gift in memory of Josiah B. Woods and Charles B. Travis of the Class of 1864, was awarded for outstanding excellence in culture and faithfulness to duty as a scholar. It went this year to Shanghui Li of Singapore.</p>
<p>For more photos, audio and text of speeches, go to the <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/mm/19256">Commencement website</a>.</p>
<p align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/20723">Commencement 2014</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/21376">193rd commencement</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/21377">Biddy Martin Katherine E. Sisk &#039;14</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/10211">Richard Wilbur &#039;42</a></div></div></div>Sun, 25 May 2014 19:29:00 +0000channa548039 at https://www.amherst.eduhttps://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2014/05-2014/node/548039#commentshttps://www.amherst.edu/news/specialevents/commencement/speeches_multimedia/2009/node/36473
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><table class="table-align-right-gradient" border="0" cellpadding="8" width="100"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><div class="mediainline"><span class="inline"><img class="image original" src="/media/view/114937/original/caps_tossed.jpg" border="0" alt="The Graduated Class of 2009!" title="The Graduated Class of 2009!" width="200" height="333"></span></div><i>Congratulations Class of 2009!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><h1>Commencement 2009</h1> <h5>May 24, 2009</h5><p><span class="drop-cap2">C</span>alling the members of the Class of 2009 “the real return on our endowment,” Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx urged the school’s graduates to “step into the forest ahead, toward rewards you had not even known you would seek” because “what we do is invest in you, in your possibilities.” “Our most significant endowment lies in you, as it lies in the generations of alumni you now join,” he told the assembled students in his traditional address during the college’s 188th Commencement. <a href="/node/114905">Read more...</a></p><h5 class="orange-heading">Speeches &amp; Photos</h5> <ul><li>Address by President Anthony W. Marx <a href="/node/114919">Video, Audio and Transcript</a><span class="fine-print"></span></li><li>Senior Class Speech by Marshall Nannes ’09 <a href="/node/114850">Audio and Transcript</a></li><li>Conversations with Honored Guests <a href="/node/114873">Audio and Photos</a></li><li>Honorand <a href="/node/109231">Citations</a></li><li>Commencement Ceremony <a href="/node/114924">Selected Photos</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/amherstcollege/sets/72157618732829990/">Photos at flickr</a></li><li>Baccalaureate Service <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/amherstcollege/sets/72157618677740346/">Photos</a> and <a href="/node/114876">Audio</a></li><li>Commencement Rehearsal <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/amherstcollege/sets/72157618651829856/">Photos</a></li><li>Senior Assembly <a href="/news/specialevents/commencement/speeches_multimedia/2009/senior_assembly">Audio and Photos</a></li></ul><h5 class="orange-heading">News Releases &amp; Announcements</h5><ul><li><a href="/node/114905">“You Are the Real Return on Endowment,” Amherst President Marx Tells Class of ’09</a></li><li><a href="/node/108924">Musician Leon Fleisher, PayPal Founder Elon Musk, Artist Frank Stella Among Eight to Be Honored at Amherst College Commencement</a></li><li><a href="/node/109951">Frank Stevenson II ’77 To Receive Medal for Eminent Service</a></li><li><a href="/node/109280">Amherst College to Honor Three Former Teachers of Graduating Seniors with Swift Moore Teaching Awards<br></a></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/11">commencement</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/1768">graduation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div></div></div>Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:00:00 +0000wwjarnagin36473 at https://www.amherst.eduAmherst College Holds 180th Commencement May 27https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2001/05_2001/node/9791
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="fine-print">May 24, 2001<br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</span> <p>AMHERST, Mass. - Four hundred and fifty-five men and women will receive Bachelor of Arts degrees at the 180th Commencement Exercises at Amherst College, to be held Sunday, May 27, at 10 a.m. in the college quadrangle. Speakers at the ceremonies will be President Tom Gerety and Daniel R. Johnson, a religion major from Summit, N.J., and a member of the Class of 2001. Folksinger Emily Greene, a graduating sociology major from San Antonio, Tex., will dedicate a song to the Class of 2001 from her recently released recording.</p><p>At the Commencement ceremony, Amherst College will award honorary degrees to Ken Bacon '66, chief executive officer of Refugees International and former Pentagon spokesman; Curt I. Civin '70, the director of the Division of Pediatric Oncology at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and inventor of a biomedical process for stem cell transplants; Ted Conover '80, author of <em>Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing </em>(2000) and several other works of narrative non-fiction; Hiroaki Fujii '58, president of the Japan Foundation and former Japanese ambassador to Thailand and Great Britian; Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, past president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Peter Nadosy, trustee and banker; Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, professor of English at CUNY Graduate Center, critic, poet and former professor at Amherst, where she helped establish the Women's and Gender Studies Department in 1987; and Morton Own Schapiro, the president of Williams College. The college also will honor R. Thomas Green '59 with the Medal for Eminent Service. Green is chairman emeritus of Oglebay Norton Company of Cleveland and Zanesville, Ohio. </p><p>On Saturday, May 26, at 2 p.m. in the quadrangle, Senior Class Day Exercises will be held. Prizes will be awarded, and two members of the Class of 2001, John M. Abodeely, a biology and fine arts major from Upper Saddle River, N.J., and David C. Breslin, an English major from St. Louis, will offer brief remarks.</p><p>Morton Owen Schapiro has been chosen by the seniors to deliver the main address on Class Day. Schapiro has been the president since July 2000 of Williams College, where he is also a professor of economics. A scholar whose research in the economics of higher education has earned praise and attention, Schapiro has written or co-written more than 50 articles and five books, including <em>The Student Aid Game</em> (1998), <em>Paying the Piper</em> (1993) and <em>Keeping College Affordable</em> (1991).</p><p>Before coming to Williams, Schapiro taught at the University of Southern California, where he served as chair of the department of economics, and as dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He studied economics at Hofstra University (B.A.) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.).</p><p>At this event, Amherst will also honor four exemplary secondary school teachers from across the country, chosen by members of the senior class to receive the Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Teaching Awards. The awards this year will go to Oliver Edel, a viola teacher at the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., nominated by Steve Ruckman; Ken Neff, a physics teacher and swim coach at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, N.Y., nominated by Ben Samelson-Jones; Phyllis Spadafora, a Spanish teacher at North Hollywood High School in California, nominated by Cathleen Sullivan; and Jane Pepperdene, an English teacher at the Paideia School in Atlanta, nominated by Laura Marshall.</p><p>A Baccalaureate service will be held on Saturday, May 26, at 10 a.m. in Johnson Chapel. This year's baccalaureate speaker will be the Rev. Jacquelyn Harris, associate minister at Saint Stephen's African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago.</p><p>In case of rain, Saturday afternoon's Senior Class Day Exercises and Sunday's Commencement ceremony will be held in LeFrak Gymnasium. </p><p align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/11">commencement</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3896">180th commencement</a></div></div></div>Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:27:03 +0000daustin099791 at https://www.amherst.eduTraditional Canes Come Back to Amherst College at Commencement 2003https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2003/05_2003/node/9162
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">May 16, 2003<br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</p><p class="text" align="left">AMHERST, Mass.-Reshaping a 19th-century tradition, Amherst College will present each member of the Class of 2003 with a new Senior Class Cane at Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25.<br><br>Jose Abad, an English major from Amherst, Mass., Benjamin Baum, a history and European Studies major from Plymouth, Mass., and Ciona van Dijk, a philosophy and psychology major from Glenwood Spring, Colo., members of the Friends of the Amherst College Library Student Activities Committee, originated the plan. "Last October," Abad recalls, "we were just wondering if we couldn't revive some old college tradition." He adds, with a smile, "we quickly eliminated the idea of beanies."<br><br>Freshmen at Amherst were once required to wear the small brimless cap known as a "beanie." The cane tradition also originated in the 19th century. When a student attained sophomore status, he was allowed to wear a class top hat and carry a class cane. Sophomores bought canes and hats in styles distinctive to their class. The archives in the college library, where Abad worked last summer, contained many faded photographs of students and alumni sporting top hats and canes. There are even a few canes, some with carved signatures. (A collection of these artifacts is on display at the Robert Frost Library until May 26.) <br><br>College archivist Daria D'Arienzo says, "There wasn't much written about the canes. This is a truly visual history." One of the few written references was in an 1871 volume, Student Life at Amherst College, in which George C. Cutting detailed the cane tradition, which seemed to fall out of favor early in the 20th century, D'Arienzo notes.<br><br>The students enlisted the aid of the Friends of the Amherst College Library, the Association of Amherst Students, the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs and the Office of the President to purchase canes for this graduating class. <br><br>The dark reddish-brown chestnut canes are of the "Derby standard" type, with a handle shaped in a delicate S-curve. Gastrock, a German company that has been crafting walking sticks in the Werra Valley in the Thuringer Forest since 1868, manufactures them. The seal on the canes, which includes the class year "2003," was copied from a 19th century college glee club program in the archives.</p><p class="text" align="center">### </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4212">commencement 2003</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4213">canes</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4214">senior class cane</a></div></div></div>Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:34:53 +0000daustin099162 at https://www.amherst.eduDouglas C. Wilson '62 To Receive Eminent Service Medal from Amherst College at Commencment 2003https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2003/05_2003/node/9160
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">May 16, 2003<br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</p><p class="text" align="left">AMHERST, Mass.-Douglas C. Wilson '62, a resident of Amherst who retired after 27 years in the office of public affairs at Amherst College last November, will receive the college's Medal for Eminent Service at the college's commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25.<br><br>The Medal for Eminent Service is presented to an Amherst alumnus who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion to his or her alma mater.<br><br>Wilson became associate secretary of the college in 1975, and in 1977 rose to the position of secretary. For the next 21 years carried the responsibility for college publications, <em>Amherst</em> magazine, the Amherst College Press, media relations and official events such as inaugurations, memorial services, convocations and commencements-including every annual commencement until this one. He was named college editor in 1998.<br><br>Wilson had worked as a reporter for <em>The Providence Journal</em> for 13 years, starting out in its Pawtucket, R.I., bureau and later being assigned to its news staffs in Newport, Providence and, from 1969 to 1975, in Washington, D.C. In 1975 he received the Merriam Smith Memorial Award from the White House Correspondents Association for the first news report of President Nixon's decision to resign.<br><br>As an Amherst undergraduate Wilson had majored in history and was chairman of The Amherst Student. He earned an M.A. degree in international studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University in 1964. Wilson's historical essay "Web of Secrecy: Goffe, Whalley, and the Legend of Hadley" received the 1986 Walter Muir Whitehead Prize in Colonial History from the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.<br><br>Wilson has been a member of the Western Massachusetts Broadcasting Council, and the Town of Amherst Historical Commission and Conservation Commission.<br><br>Founded in 1821, Amherst College is consistently ranked one of the nation's best colleges. Amherst enrolls 1,650 students from nearly every state and more than 40 other countries. Amherst offers the B.A. degree in 33 fields of study.</p><p class="text" align="center">### </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/208">Class of 1962</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2333">Medal for Eminent Service</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4211">douglas c. wilson</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4212">commencement 2003</a></div></div></div>Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:34:07 +0000daustin099160 at https://www.amherst.eduAmherst College To Hold 182nd Commencement Exercises May 25https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2003/05_2003/node/9155
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">May 20, 2003<br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</p><p class="text" align="left">AMHERST, Mass.—Amherst College will grant bachelor of arts degrees to 415 members of the Class of 2003 at Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 25, at 10 a.m. in the Main Quadrangle. (Exercises will be held in LeFrak Gymnasium in the event of rain.) Amherst President Tom Gerety, who will leave the Amherst presidency at the end of June after nine years, will give the address. Sarah W. Walker '03, a double major in English and fine arts from West Hartford, Conn., has been chosen by her classmates to speak.<br><br>Honorary degrees will also be awarded at the ceremony to Rosanne Haggerty '82, housing activist; Asma Jahangir, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and human rights activist; LaSalle Doheny Leffall, Jr., surgeon and cancer specialist; Charles Ashby Lewis '64, investment banker, life trustee of Amherst College and chair of its recent comprehensive campaign; Minoru Oya, chancellor of Doshisha University in Japan; Gordon Parks, filmmaker, composer and photographer; Gary Alan Sinise, actor, director and producer, and Peter Morrison Vitousek '71, environmental biologist.<br><br>The college will honor Douglas Wilson '62 with the Medal for Eminent Service. The honorary marshal is George Johnson '73.<br><br>At Senior Class Exercises on Saturday, May 24, at 2 p.m. Benjy Caplan, an English major from New York City, and Sarah M. Miller, a chemistry major from Dayton, Ohio, will offer remarks. The recipients of honorary degrees will speak at 3:30 p.m. at various locations around campus; Asma Jahangir will deliver an address at Class Day Exercises at 2 p.m.<br><br>The college will award prizes at Senior Class Exercises, and present Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Awards on behalf of graduating seniors to secondary school teachers Frederic (Ted) Fitts '74, a history teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, R.I.; Jennifer Greeley, an English teacher at Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Mass.; James P. Spellicy, an economics and history teacher at Lowell High School in San Francisco, Calif.; and Margaret Wong, a Chinese teacher at Breck School in Minneapolis, Minn.</p><p class="text"><a href="http://www.amherst.edu/news/commencement/">Commencement Information and Schedule</a></p><p class="text" align="center">### </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/228">Class of 2003</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/4224">182nd commencement exercises</a></div></div></div>Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:32:52 +0000daustin099155 at https://www.amherst.eduAmherst College Class of 2006 Celebrates Class Day May 27https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2006/05_2006/node/8724
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p class="fine-print">May 27, 2006 <br>Director of Media Relations<br>413/542-8417</p><p class="text">AMHERST, Mass.—In an outspokenly political address, Samantha Power, professor in practice of public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and author of <em>A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide</em>, told the Class of 2006 at Amherst College that “At a time when politics deals in distortions and half truths, truth is to be found in the liberal arts. There’s something afoot in this country and you are very much a part of it” Chosen by the graduates to speak, Power will be among seven recipients of honorary degrees at Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 28 at 10 a.m. <br><br>Four graduating seniors also addressed their class Saturday. Issa Abdulcadir of Washington, D.C., urged his classmates, “regardless of where you end up, enjoy the ride.” Andre Kobayashi Deckrow of Kent, Wash., said that “the definition of Amherst College is not in the topography of the campus, but in the hearts of each of us.” Sarah K. Rothbard of Livingston, N.J., recalling that former college president Tom Gerety spoke about King Lear at her class’s first convocation at Amherst in 2002, said that, “like Cordelia, words today are inadequate to express my gratitude.” Aidan Sleeper of Mamaroneck, N.Y., roared the college motto, “Terras Irradient,” or “let them give light to the world.”<br><br>The Association of Amherst Students gave the Distinguished Teaching Award to Stephen George, the Manwell Family Professor in Life Sciences (Biology and Neuroscience), who has taught at Amherst since 1965.<br><br>The college also awarded student prizes. The Thomas H. Wyman 1951 Medal was established by Wyman’s classmates and family to commemorate his remarkable life achievements and philanthropy to his beloved Amherst. A leadership gift to the annual fund was made in the name Rania Arja of Fountain Valley, Calif. <br><br>The Howard Hill Mossman Trophy, awarded annually to the member of the senior class, who has brought, during his or her four years at Amherst, the greatest honor in athletics to his or her alma mater, the word “honor” to be interpreted as relating both to achievement and to sportsmanship, was given to John F. Bedford Jr. of Ridgewood, N.J.<br><br>The Psi Upsilon Prize was established by the Gamma Chapter of Psi Upsilon in 1941 on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Chapter. The prize was awarded to Adam Lewkowitz of Phoenix, Ariz., the member of the graduating class considered preeminent in scholarship, leadership, athletics and character. <br><br>The Obed Finch Slingerland Memorial Prize, given by the trustees of the college to members of the senior class, who have shown by their own determination and accomplishment the greatest appreciation of and desire for a college education, was awarded to Raul Altreche of Amherst, Mass.<br><br>The Woods-Travis Prize, an annual gift in memory of Josiah B. Woods of Enfield and Charles B. Travis of the Class of 1864, is awarded for outstanding excellence in culture and faithfulness to duty as a scholar. It went to Gordon Arlen of Evanston, Ill. and Sarang Gopalakrishnan of Mumbai, India. <br><br>The college presented Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Awards on behalf of graduating seniors to four secondary school teachers: John Benson, a math teacher from Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill., nominated separately by three different students: Rachel Gilbert, Hilary Levinson and Christian McClellan, all of Evanston, Ill<strong>.; </strong>David Ely, a biology teacher from Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vt., nominated by Carolyn Koulouris of Shelburne, Vt.; Elissa Jury, a science teacher from Rondout Valley High School in Accord, N.Y., nominated by graduating senior Jon Vosper of Kingston, N.Y.; and Robert Wilmoth, a history teacher from Elkins High School in Elkins, W.V., nominated by Aaron Hall of Montrose, W.V. <br><br>Ten people, including current and retiring employees of Amherst College were named honorary members of the Class of 2006: Anthony “Tony” Esposito (Shelburne, Mass.), a server at Schwemm’s Gourmet Coffee House); Marie Fowler (Belchertown, Mass.), an assistant in the registrar’s office; Zudo Jusufovich (Amherst, Mass.), a custodian; Donald Kells (Montague, Mass.), the college postmaster; Doris Mason (Florence, Mass.), a checker at Valentine Dining hall; Onawumi Jean Moss (Amherst, Mass.), retiring as associate dean of students; Greg Murphy, a Tulane University student who was a visiting student at Amherst last fall; Zaweeda Sahabdeen (Amherst, Mass.), a checker at Valentine Dining Hall; The Rev. Paul Sorrentino (South Deerfield, Mass.), the coordinator for religious life; and Lew Spratlan (Amherst, Mass.), retiring as the Peter R. Pouncey Professor of Music.</p><p class="text" align="center">###</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-1 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/231">Class of 2006</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/552">news releases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2841">Class Day</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/2842">Commencement Exercises</a></div></div></div>Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:59:02 +0000daustin098724 at https://www.amherst.edu